A: That’s an excellent start, and adding X Reps isn’t just a good idea because they help build muscle fast—they also help you burn fat. The reason: growth hormone and testosterone, two very potent fat burners.

If you’ve tried X Reps, you know they produce an incredible searing effect at the end of any set. We’ve mentioned in our e-zine that GH is linked to muscle burn. Think about it: With X Reps you can do an intense heavy set on a compound exercise, like bench presses, and then end that set with power partials to significantly magnify the burn. You know the big exercises help trigger testosterone, and with X Reps you can force more GH as well thanks to the burn they produce. It’s a fat-burning double whammy—a much more efficient method than anything out there, with almost zero wasted effort. (That’s one reason we say that each X-Rep set is at least three times as effective as a straight set to failure.)

If you’ve been training for any length of time, you know it’s very difficult to achieve a burn on the big, compound movements. But with X Reps you can make it happen every time—producing a searing firestorm finale. Do you see why we’re so fanatical about X Reps—and why they were the key method during our one-month metamorphoses?

So definitely include X Reps in your fat-burning plan. As for cardio, you can start slowly, say two 20-minute sessions a week of medium-intensity work and build from there. Make gradual increases so your body adapts and you don’t burn too much muscle. The real key, however, will be your weight workouts which will jack up your metabolism long after you leave the gym. [For more on the best fat-burning techniques, including cardio-surge programs, gradual calorie-reduction diets and the new High-Definition X-Rep workout, get a copy of X-treme Lean.]

The X-treme Lean e-book details our fat-burning strategies, as well as Becky Holman’s (she’s on the cover) and also includes our cardio programs, meal-by-meal diets, key fat-burning nutrients and how we used each. We also outline and explain the new High-Definition X-Rep workout that’s designed to boost GH and testosterone so you melt fat as you pack on muscle (yes, it can be done!).

A: The whole new feel you refer to is the muscle continuing to fire after the nervous system halts full-range movement. That’s what makes X Reps such a powerful muscle-building tool. It’s ultimate intensity and overload. Plus, that muscle burn is one of the best ways to get surges in growth hormone.

In a study published in the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology (22:244-255; 1997), researchers showed that there’s a direct correlation between higher blood lactic acid levels and GH release from the pituitary gland. That means the more muscle burn you can induce, the more growth hormone you can stimulate—up to a point. And growth hormone does everything from help you build muscle and burn fat to bolster your immune system and strengthen bones, ligaments and tendons. Talk about bodybuilding bonus points!

Because X Reps are so intense, most trainees will get best results by doing one straight set to failure followed by another straight set to failure with X Reps. The first straight set to failure is more of an extension of the warmup. A warm muscle can contract up to 20 percent better than a cold one, so having the muscle primed for your X Rep set is very important. (Most bodybuilders don’t warm up sufficiently, which can significantly limit progress.) The first heavy set to failure extends the warmup sets you do prior to your first work set, and it also pumps up nervous system reaction time so your X set is X-ponentially more effective.

If you have an above-average recovery ability, you may benefit from doing both sets with X Reps; however, if you try it and start feeling lathargic and lose your enthusiasm for training, back off. That’s overtraining trying to step in and stomp on your progress. Don’t let that happen. We recently tried doing a straight set, and then two X-Rep sets, but we felt too drained and backed off to one. The bright side is shorter workouts and better results. X Reps work, but you can’t abuse them.

Bodybuilding bonus: While X Reps force more muscle-fiber activation, they also can trigger growth hormone surges via muscle burn. GH does everything from help you build muscle and burn fat to bolster your immune system and strengthen bones, ligaments and tendons.

Q: In X-treme Lean you have the “High-Definition Workout” (pages 76-78), and you say to use it five days a week. I don’t think I’ve seen you recommend that many workouts in a row. What’s the reason [for five consecutive days of training]?

A: After training for photo shoots for 10 years off and on, we realized that one of the keys to getting lean is hormone-zone training, which is where you keep testosterone, GH and other anabolic, fat-burning hormones up as high as possible. [Read more…]